Researchers at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, have demonstrated how nanotechnology can enable the creation of 'five dimensional' discs with huge storage capacities.

The research, carried out at the university's Centre for Micro-Photonics by Peter Zijlstra, Dr James Chon and Professor Min Gu was published in the scientific journal Nature, under the heading 'DVDs to harness hyperspace'.

The researchers have been able to squeeze 1.6 terabytes on single disc in laboratory conditions. They reckon with optimisation this can be further increased up to 10 terabytes, which roughly translated into 400 high-definition or 2,000 standard-definition movies.

Discs currently have three spatial dimensions, but by using nanoparticles the Swinburne researchers were able to introduce a spectral - or colour - dimension as well as a polarisation dimension.

"We were able to show how nanostructured material can be incorporated onto a disc in order to increase data capacity, without increasing the physical size of the disc," Gu said.

To create the 'colour dimension' the researchers inserted gold nanorods onto a disc's surface. Because nanoparticles react to light according to their shape, this allowed the researchers to record information in a range of different colour wavelengths on the same physical disc location.

A fifth dimension was introduced onto the disc using polarisation. When light waves are projected onto the disc, the direction of the electric field contained within them aligned with the gold nanorods. This allowed the researchers to record different layers of information at different angles.

Some issues, such as the speed at which the discs can be written on, are yet to be resolved. However the researchers are confident the discs will be commercially available within five to 10 years. The discs are likely to have immediate applications in a range of fields, such as storing extremely large medical files like MRIs, and in the financial, military and security arenas.

Story filed 15.06.09